Future Computing and Informatics Journal

Volume 3 Article 28
Issue 2 Vol 3,Issue 2,2018

2018

Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for

Medicine Reminder and Monitoring System
Diaa Salama Abdul Minaam
Information Systems Department, Faculty of Computers and Informatics, Benha University, Egypt,
[email protected]

Mohamed Abd-ELfattah
Information Systems Department, Faculty of Computers and Informatics, Benha University, Egypt,
[email protected]

Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij

Part of the Chemical Engineering Commons

Recommended Citation
Abdul Minaam, Diaa Salama and Abd-ELfattah, Mohamed (2018) "Smart drugs:Improving healthcare
using Smart Pill Box for Medicine Reminder and Monitoring System," Future Computing and Informatics
Journal: Vol. 3 : Iss. 2 , Article 28.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Arab Journals Platform. It has been accepted for
inclusion in Future Computing and Informatics Journal by an authorized editor. The journal is hosted on Digital
Commons, an Elsevier platform. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].
 Abdul Minaam and Abd-ELfattah: Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicin

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

ScienceDirect
Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/future-computing-and-informatics-journal/

Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicine

Reminder and Monitoring System
Diaa Salama Abdul Minaam*, Mohamed Abd-ELfattah
Information Systems Department, Faculty of Computers and Informatics, Benha University, Egypt
Received 23 February 2018; revised 9 September 2018; accepted 20 November 2018
Available online 29 November 2018

Abstract

Many medical errors are due to the fact that people in charge of patient or elder's medication have to deal with sorting huge amounts of pills
each day. This paper consists on the conception, design and creation of a pillbox prototype intended to solve this deficiency in the medical area
as it has the ability of sorting out the pills by itself as well as many other advanced features, with this device being intended to be used by
hospitals or retirement homes. This medication pill box is focused on patients who frequently take medications or vitamin supplements, or
attendants who deal with the more seasoned or patients. Our smart pill box is programmable that enables medical caretakers or clients to
determine the pill amount and timing to take pills, and the service times for every day. Our shrewd pills box contains nine separate sub-boxes. In
this manner, medical caretakers or clients can set data for nine distinct pills. At the point when the pill time has been set, the pillbox will remind
clients or patients to take pills utilizing sound and light. The warning of pills should be taken will be shown by an android application which is
held by the patient. Contrasted and the conventional pill box that requires clients or attendants to stack the crate each day or consistently. Our
shrewd pill box would essentially discharge medical attendants or clients' weight on much of the time preloading pills for patients or clients and
overlook the measurements which must be taken.
Copyright © 2018 Faculty of Computers and Information Technology, Future University in Egypt. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This
is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: Smart Pill box; IoT; Health Care; Medicine Reminder

1. Introduction can forget the medicines which they have to take. In order to
eliminate the factors of always needed observation like nurses
There can be a lot of individuals out there who need con- or taking a risk of a missed dose, we had to find an easy,
stant help e may it be our elderly people, family members, the portable and efficient solution. Pill boxes already exist but
ones who have special needs. Elders are more affected by the most of them are either has limited use, doesn't fit for elder
timing of taking a certain drug than others, in order to prevent ages or even has a big size that makes it not suitable to take it
any dysfunction or illness timing is a must [1,2]. with you anywhere [3,4].
But as with aging comes poor eye sight and poor memory, In order to make a really useful smart pillbox it had to be
what if the patient has a dementia like Alzheimer. Some easily integrated with the recent sweeping smart technologies.
people may forget to take the medicines at the correct time and While at the same time it had be fit for the elders and their
limited knowledge and experience to implement the ease of
use. Size and portability was also an important fact that we
* Corresponding author. had to keep in mind [5e7].
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (D.S. Abdul Minaam), For it to be called smart, its connected through a wireless
[email protected] (M. Abd-ELfattah).
network, which enables it to be connected to the internet for
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Computers and Information
Technology, Future University in Egypt. future applications and integration, also its distinguished by

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcij.2018.11.008
2314-7288/Copyright © 2018 Faculty of Computers and Information Technology, Future University in Egypt. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Published by Arab Journals Platform, 2018
 Future Computing and Informatics Journal, Vol. 3 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 28

444 D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456

the wide range of the Wi-Fi instead of a Bluetooth or any other take at the correct time, remembering to take them or
field communication, and erase the need for any wires or wired confusing one pill with another as the person may not be able
connection which enables portability in the first place. to distinguish one from another thanks to their decreased sight
Through that same network its connected to the mobile phone, as well as the similarity in the pills forms and colors. This
which with it you can set the timing interval for the dose and problem will most surely be a cause for concern for the people
also notifies you by many ways when the dose time comes. surrounding the pill-taker, as not taking a pill at the correct
Also, we added a buzzer with a LED to make a type of time can cause severe problems (such as organ rejection in a
physical warning, so that it leaves you no choice but to patient with organ transplant or heart attack in patients
remember the pill time and take it [8,9]. suffering from grave heart conditions) [13,14].
The aim of this study is to build a Smart Pill Box for Med- On the other hand several problems related to the high
icine Reminder and Monitoring System. When the pill time has amount of pills nowadays are prescribed to patients are found
been set, the pillbox will remind clients or patients to take pills in hospitals or in retirement homes. In these places on of the
utilizing sound and light. The warning of pills should be taken main jobs is to give out to its patient the correct pills. Man-
will be shown by an android application which is held by the aging, sorting and giving out the pills to each one of the pa-
patient. Contrasted and the conventional pill box that requires tients can sometimes have a high chance of error, with a
clients or attendants to stack the crate each day or consistently. patient or resident receiving one or more incorrect pills.
This model can aid in help elders to take their medication. Finally there are situation where taking an incorrect amount
The rest of the paper is described as follows: In Section 2 of pills is a matter of the patient's inexperience and/or igno-
describe the problem statement; Section 3 presents the basic rance. No matter the cause, it has been proven that there is a
concept of elders problems; section 4 presents the main significant risk of people ending up swallowing the incorrect
objective of the research; section 5 presents previous work. medication or dose.
Section 6 presents the proposed smart reminder system model;
Section 7 presents the research design; Section 8 presents the 3. Elders problems
proposed framework for smart pill box; Section 9 presents the
implementation of the proposed model; section 10 presents the A. Alzheimer
experimental results of proposed model. Finally shows the
conclusion of this paper. Alzheimer's is the most widely recognized type of de-
mentia, a general term for memory misfortune and other in-
2. Problem statement tellectual capacities sufficiently genuine to meddle with day
by day life. Alzheimer's illness represents 60 to 80 percent of
As pills have taken such an important role in everyday life dementia cases. Alzheimer's isn't an ordinary piece of
there has been the past years an increase in the number of maturing. The best-known hazard factor is expanding age, and
medical neglect cases related to incorrect medication given to the dominant part of individuals with Alzheimer's are 65 and
patients, such as the case of the nurse who gave a patient a more seasoned. In any case, Alzheimer's isn't only an illness of
paralytic instead of an antacid that was prescribed by the seniority. Around 200,000 Americans younger than 65 have
doctor, causing the patient's death [10]. After seeing so many more youth-full beginning Alzheimer's infection (otherwise
of these cases it is evidently crucial that the correct pill is called early-beginning Alzheimer's) [15].
taken by the correct person at the correct time, otherwise
taking an incorrect one or not taking one at all may expose the B. Missed dose
patient to several dangerous situations, ranging from mild
health issues up to death [11]. The build ‘missed dose’ is integral to numerous appraisals of
Other cases of wrong pills being ingested by patients are medication adherence. Nonetheless, few examinations have
caused by patients themselves, especially at an old age. As explored how patients or clinicians conceptualize missed dosages
people grow old the human body tends to malfunction and the or the degree of the concordance or harshness amongst clinicians
number of pills the average person has to take when certain and patients. Generally speaking, patients revealed a stricter
age is reached greatly increases, were, according to a 2008 meaning of missed measurements than did clin-icians. Fifty-five
study published in the Journal of the American Medical As- percent of patients suspected that a pill-taking postponement of
sociation, more than 40 percent of Americans age 65 and older 6 h past the endorsed dosing time constituted a missed mea-
take five medications a day [12]. Usually they are a wide range surement, by correlation, just a single doctor concurred with this
of different pills an elderly has to take at different times. evaluation. More than 33% of patients believed that the best
Keeping track of taking the right pill at the right moment each possible reaction to a missed dosage is skipped it through and
day can become a challenging experience for the elderly, as it through, yet just around 12% of clinicians concurred [16].
is not as easy as it could be for a younger person. This fact is
easily explained when we understand that many of the abilities 4. Objectives
such as sight, memory or logical capabilities tend to decrease
in a proportional way to age once human beings have entered The main objective of this model will be to solve the above-
old age, making it difficult for them to remember which pill to mentioned problems by designing and create a tool which will

https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28
 Abdul Minaam and Abd-ELfattah: Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicin

D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456 445

enable the owner to track every pill to ingest in an easy and proposed a smart pillbox with remind and confirm functions.
simple way requiring no training or complex learning from The proposed pill box can reduce family member's re-
their side in order to operate the device. This device will be an sponsibility towards ensuring the correct and timely con-
intelligent pill dispenser. sumption of medicines. Because the proposed pillbox
The pill dispenser will be designed to prevent errors in hos- containing an alert sound to the user for a particular time and
pitals and retirement homes where many pills have to be given real-time clock gives continuous time as an output.
daily to each one of the patients, each patient owning a device will In Ref. [2] proposed Multidisciplinary approaches to
not only drastically reduce the chances of errors occurring but achieving efficient and trustworthy eHealth monitoring sys-
also well optimize and speed up work for the caretakers/nurses by tems (2014), The technological merging between IOT, wire-
allowing the device to take care of pill management for them and less body area network and cloud computing have vital
freeing the time slot usually dedicated to that. contribution in e health care which improve the quality of
This device is intended to log the pill name, number of pills medical care, basically patient centric monitoring play a role
and hours at which each pill is actually taken versus the time it in e health care services which involve medical data collec-
should have been taken. Nowadays there has been an tion, aggregation, data transmission and data analysis here
increasing awareness as the number of pills prescribed to elder entire monitoring lifecycle and essential services component
people, stating that so many pills may have negative effects on have discus as well as design challenges in designing the
the patient's health. The pillbox's logs will help gather data quality and patient centric monitoring scheme along with
concerning this matter. potential solution.
There is a need to ensure the device is wirelessly connected In Ref. [21] proposed the intelligent pill boxdDesign and
so device management (defining the hours when a particular implementation (2014), the implementation of pill box has
pill must be taken, number of pills in each compartment, proposed by keeping the problems of old age people in mind
etc…) as well as possibility of emitting warnings to the to provide full medication safety. The pill box will remind the
owner's relatives or nurses if needed (such as the patient not patient about timing by doing this drug abusing can be
taking pills). controlled.
In essence, the device will have to be a wireless electronic In [106] proposed A Self-powering Wireless Environment
apparatus, having special attention to make it very precise as Monitoring System Using Soil Energy. The monitoring system
an error could prove fatal. can uses the self-powering wireless environment with the help
of renewable energy which can be beneficial in remote places
5. Related work where the power problem in wide manner, in this the system
have demonstrated which will uses soil energy with carbon,
In Ref. [17], a pill box based on a MCS-51 micro-controller zink electrodes.
was proposed; that pill box can send out medicine using a In Ref. [22] proposed embedded platform for Web-based
stepper motor at a scheduled time, but there was no provision monitoring and control of a smart home, Present the low
to record the time when the patient actually took the medicine. cost embedded platform for web based monitoring and con-
Apart from the abovementioned disadvantages, the other dis- trolling and the platform consist of distributed sensing and
advantages of these previous systems are as follows: control network and.
For more information about smart healthcare using IoT will

The family members or patients need to fill the medicine be found in Refs. [20,23e31].
in the pill box manually; this is an additional responsibility
for family members of the elderly, or even the patients. 6. Smart medicine reminder

Manually filling the medicine in the pill box may cause the
medicine to dampen easily. Medicine hasn't always been the precise science which we
know nowadays, in fact, throughout history the vast majority
In Ref. [18], an intelligent pill box (IPB) was proposed. The of maladies and afflictions would have resulted in probable
IPB is based on the medicine bag system, and the IPB sends a death. Fortunately medicine has experienced a great devel-
medicine bag out of the box at the appropriate time. If the opment in the last century, resulting in an increased life ex-
patient does not take the medicine bag away, the IPB would pectancy and the possibility to cure a great quantity of diseases
notify the caregivers via Skype. The IPB system improves the and health disorders.
interactivity between patient and caregivers, but it works well Pills are one of the pillars of medicine, being used as direct
only if an internet connection is available. treatments of some sort of illness as to assuring some medical
In Ref. [19], an electronic pillbox called MedTracker was condition remains stable.
proposed; in the MedTracker, the time at which each lid was Our smart medicine reminder system is designed for, but
opened or closed is recorded, and transmitted to PC via a not restricted to, helping old people in taking care of them-
Bluetooth link. However, the MedTracker does not provide selves in taking their medications at the correct time and in the
any remind or confirm functions. correct amount. It has been observed that people in general
In Ref. [20], developed a medication safety and to avoid neglect their health and give preference to other things than
confusion in taking tablet among the elderly, this paper taking their medicines. This is also the reason they forget to

Published by Arab Journals Platform, 2018

 Future Computing and Informatics Journal, Vol. 3 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 28

446 D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456

take their prescriptions on time. Many health maintenance
In case of any missed dose, it notifies the patient's
organizations, health practitioners and medical researchers relatives.
have realized that increased use of patient reminders can
significantly increase the treatment of chronic illness and de-
livery of medical services to the patients who need it. 7.1. Conceptual design
However, many patients and especially old people, do not
take their medicines in the correct quantity. They either take Pillbox will work under two different working modes:
overdose of medicines thinking it will help them heal faster, or Normal mode, and Management mode.
they fear the doctor has prescribed a larger quantity than
required and take under dosage of medicines. The former leads 7.1.1. Normal mode
to several unsuccessful health implications while the latter Normal mode is intended to be the default working mode
delays the treatment of the patient and in some cases, allows when the seniors are using it. During this mode the pillbox
the illness to spread further requiring further treatment. remains in standby till a pill/dose has to be taken by the user.
Furthermore, some patients are so occupied with their day- Once a pill is due the pillbox will emit acoustic and visual
to-day activities that they just forget to take their medications. notifications via the internal speaker and the LEDs. The no-
This is particularly true for old patients who have to take more tifications will last for a short amount of time which will be
than one medicine at more than one time in a day. Setting defined later (around 10 s) and then emit a bleep each 10 s.
alarm clocks is a tedious task which patients are too lazy to set The LEDs will remain lit up till the senior interacts with the
again and again. If asked about what time people have to take device and takes the pill. User will have to press the button and
their medicines, many forget to answer the correct times or then the pillbox will automatically dispense the pill, shutting
remember whether they have already taken the medicine in the off all the visual and acoustic notifications once the button is
day already. Elderly people specially face this problem pressed and the pill dispensed.
because of their degrading memory and in severe cases, forget If an amount of time (to be defined in later design stages)
that they have already taken their prescription and retake the passes without the user pressing the button the pillbox will
same medicine 2 or 3 times in the same duration. This may not emit a wireless notification which will alert the nurse/caregiver
be harmful for lighter medicines, but for some strong and in charge that there is a pill pending to be taken by the user of
concentrated medicines, it can have further harmful effects to that particular pillbox.
the body. This is exactly where our medicine reminder system
can help. Our system takes up the prescription details from the 7.1.2. Management mode
user such as the duration of the prescription, the names of the Management mode will be engaged when the pillbox is
medicines, the times they are to be taken and the amount of being managed by the management the mobile application.
each medicine which is to be taken. After all this data has been Connection will be done wirelessly.
entered, our system will remind the user at the prescribed time Management program may:
of which medicine is to be taken in form of a mobile notifi-
cation and a physical reminder. The patients can leave taking
Reprogram the pillbox with the new pill schedule.
medicines to just our app. whenever the time for the medicine
Activate the refilling sequence, for which each of the
is up, they will be notified and they only have to take their compartments of the pillbox will become accessible while
prescriptions during that time, and no other time. If imple- the program will indicate which pill type corresponds in
mented properly, this will drastically decrease overdose of each compartment so that the caregiver/nurse replenishes
medicines due to forgetfulness and the patients will also be it.
reminded to take their medicines.
Run the test function throughout which the nurse/caregiver
will check the correct operation of the pillbox.
7. Research design
Once the device enters management mode the charging
The purpose of the proposed model is to reach the same or LED will blink twice at the start to indicate the pillbox has
even better results as many brands in the field, reach maximum established correctly the connection with the managing
quality with the lowest cost possible, together with the aid of program.
our target which is to alert the patient and his caregivers with
the regular doses he has to take. We should be looking for 7.2. Conceptual design
reaching to the patient to his phone as this the most suitable
and dependable utility he has, also the same can be done with Sketches for various different models were made. A total of
the family, relatives or even the nurse. 5 different models were finally created.
At the end we want to reach a few simple objectives which are: After discarding the majority of them for obvious flaws
only two sketches were taken into account as a possible

Take the periodic time and store it for every pill. Alarm the starting point to start designing the first prototype of the
user in many ways through the device itself or the mobile app. pillbox, model A and model B (See Fig. 1).

https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28
 Abdul Minaam and Abd-ELfattah: Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicin

D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456 447

7.4. Block diagram

A simple block diagram was created to use as a template

when designing the different parts (both physical and soft-
ware) of the pillbox, this diagram can be seen in Fig. 3.
Arduino board will be the “brain” of the pillbox, managing
each one of the different areas and will be powered directly
with the adapter (charger 12 V). The notification block will be
in charge of emitting sound and light signals for the patient to
know a pill has to be taken and wireless signals to the care-
givers. In a separate block the pill compartments and the pill
dispensing mechanism will be also managed apart by the
Arduino. Finally an external charger will be in command of
charge the battery directly through the Arduino.

A. Materials
1) Arduino NANO (Fig. 4): The Arduino Nano is a lit-
Fig. 1. Implementation of the proposed System. tle, total, and breadboard-accommodating board in
view of the ATmega328P.

It has pretty much a similar usefulness of the Arduino

7.2.1. Model A Duemi lanove however in an alternate bundle. It needs DC just
Model A consists on a rectangular box design in which a control jack and works with a Mini-B USB link rather a
there are nine pill compartments (labelled A to I), Led which standard one. The Arduino Nano is open-source.
indicate different working modes and notifications are located The Arduino Nano can be controlled by means of the USB
of the pillbox, front beside the box. Refilling will be made by association, 6e20V unregulated outer power supply 30), or 5V
Refill zipper with the pill compartments at a time and when directed outside power supply (pin 27). The source is naturally
the pillbox had to dispense a pill, the mentioned pill will fall chosen to the most astounding v source. The ATmega328P on
into the tray found at the lower center in the front side of the the Arduino Nano comes with a bootloader that enables you to
pillbox. transfer new code it without the utilization of an outside
equipment software engineer. It conveys utilizing the first
7.2.2. Model B STK500 convention. You can likewise sidestep the bootloader
Model B consists on a circulator with a hole in the lowest and program the controller through the ICSP (In-Circuit Serial
part from where it is intended for the pills to be dispensed at header utilizing Arduino ISP or comparable.
the indicated time. On the lower section of the tube a big
button to be used by the senior users will be located and beside 2) ESP 8266 NodeMCU 12E Dev.kit: NodeMCU is a phase for
it the different notification LEDs as well as a smaller switch to IoT which is an open source organize, that furthermore,
be used by the nurse/caregiver in charge for different advanced fuses firmware which continues running on the ESP8266 Wi
options such as management, refilling the pillbox, etc.… Fi SoC from Espressif Systems and gear which relies upon
Finally became clear that the model which would continue the ESP-12 module. So we here imply the dev. the unit itself
onto the next production phase will be model B. This decision not the firmware that continues running on it. In the disdain
was made when an unexpected concept problem arose when of the way that the chip uses Lua scripting vernacular, yet we
studying each one of the models in further detail, which imagined that it was more solace to use the Arduino centre
method was needed to make it possible for the pillbox to give for the chip with a particular true objective to programming
only one pill and no more to the patients without using it through the Arduino condition.
advanced technology which could make the both the produc-
tion and the final price of the pillbox greatly rise. A purely The Arduino core is delivered by some inventive ESP8266
mechanical mechanism using only plastic 3d printed parts was fans which can be found on the GitHub name under the of”
devised which could only be implemented in a Square shape Arduino core for ESP8266 WiFi chip”, which can have pre-
and not in a circulator. sented in the Arduino IDE through the board executive or on
the other hand various diverse ways [6]. The core is a course of
7.3. Flowchart action of programming libraries and parts required by the
Arduino IDE to amass an Arduino C/Cþþ source crush down
The flowchart represent the logic of the pillbox when to the objective MCU's machine lingo, which is the ESP8266
operating. Fig. 2 shows the flowchart for implantation the chip on our case.
smart pill box.

Published by Arab Journals Platform, 2018

 Future Computing and Informatics Journal, Vol. 3 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 28

448 D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456

Fig. 2. Flow Chart for of the proposed System.

3) buzzer: Piezoelectric signals, or piezo ringers, as they are electric field they extend or pack, as per the recurrence of
at times called, were developed by Japanese makers and the flag in this way creating sound.
fitted into a wide cluster of items amid the 1970se1980s.
This headway primarily came to fruition on account of 4) RoboRemo App: A simple form of the interface as per your
helpful endeavours. In 1951, they set up the Barium task requires: include catches, sliders, LEDs, and so on. Uti-
Titanate Appli-cation Research Committee, which enabled lize accelerometer sensor for controlling the guiding of a RC
the organizations and achieves a few piezoelectric de- auto, or for tilting an automaton. Utilize plots to show constant
velopments and creations. Piezoelectric materials are information from sensors. You can interface the Arduino
either normally accessible or syn-thetic. Piezoceramic is board straightforwardly utilizing OTG link (if your gadget
class of synthetic material, which postures piezoelectric bolsters OTG), or you can utilize a remote module and asso-
impact and is broadly used to make a plate, the core of ciate with Bluetooth or WIFI. WIFI TCP client, TCP server
piezo bell. At the point when subjected to an exchanging and UDP, Mobile Internet TCP client, TCP server and UDP.

https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28
 Abdul Minaam and Abd-ELfattah: Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicin

D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456 449

Fig. 3. Block Diagram for of the proposed System.

Fig. 5. ESP 8266 NodeMCU 12E.

Fig. 4. Arduino nano.

8. Proposed framework communication, the figure below shows the two packages
server and shuts the association. The wifi module is the
The framework of this project is divided into two sub- essence of all; it empowers us to control the system part of the
categories, the first is the ESP package which is consisted of device.
all the classes, sub classes and objects needed for the WiFi to
establish a server and become ready to connect. The second B. Arduino
one is intended for the Arduino NANO, which is the classes 1) SoftwareSerial: As from its name it's the class which
set up in the software in order to run the serial ports used for enables us from defining any two digital pins as a

Published by Arab Journals Platform, 2018

 Future Computing and Informatics Journal, Vol. 3 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 28

450 D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456

Fig. 7 represents a minimalist cross-section of the pillbox

locating the modules inside the pillbox's body.

8.1.1. Pill refilling module design

This module will be in charge of allowing the person in
charge of refilling the mechanism to refill adequately the
pillbox with a minimal chance for errors in the process.
The opening will be located in the top surface of the
pillbox. Refilling will be done with help of the pillbox's
management software. The person in charge will be prompted
to insert a specific pill type in the pillbox and press a button in
application when that action has been completed and the
compartment for that pill has been fully replenished. Once the
user hits the button in application the program will ask to refill
another pill type and press a buttons and the action will be
repeated until all of the pill compartments have been refilled.
Fig. 6. A buzzer.

transmitter and a receiver. We had to use that in the

debugging and testing stage, it was more efficient to
use more than one serial communication as long as
the baud rate is low. We first use the method begin ()
then define the baud rate in order to run the UART
serial communication on the specified pins. It
enabled us from monitoring the whole system
through the serial monitor, also seeing how fast the
transmission goes defined the stability and the
capability of the system. Checking the serial trans-
mission was through the method available (), the
method read () and write () were for transmitting and
receiving to and from the ESP device.
2) Timer One: Timer One is the class used for control-
ling the internal timer of the Arduino, in order to set
the periodical timing for each dose we had to count
the smallest scale of time which is in seconds. We first
has to initialize the timer through initialize () method
for the unit to be counted, or more convenient, how
frequent would be the timer initiating an interrupt for
processing the ISR (Interrupt Service Routine). Then
attach an interrupt to it through the attachInterrupt ()
method, which defines the ISR that has to be
executed. Then the timerisr () contains the command
that has to be executed, which is initially controlling
four separate counters (See Figs. 5 and 6).

8.1. Pillbox design

Different modules have to be defined as stated in section

“Block diagram” in the conceptual design. In order to start the
final design of the pillbox it is mandatory to locate each one of
the modules in a specific area. These modules will be the pill
refilling mechanism, the pill dispensing mechanism and the
electronic module, where most of the circuitry will be located
such as the Arduino, switches, etc … Also the location of the
pill tray where each one of the pills will exit the pillbox must
be noted in the diagram.
Fig. 7. Pillbox's module scheme.

https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28
 Abdul Minaam and Abd-ELfattah: Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicin

D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456 451

Pill storage will consist on a Zippers where all the different

compartments will be contained in the form of hollow pillars,
which will be the ones holding the pills in them. In order for
the pills to access each pill compartment a servo installed
below the lid which will be holding the Zippers will align via a
command sent by the computer each one of the compartments
with the entry hole, making the pills fall directly to the
selected compartment. Once the compartment in use is filled
the servo will rotate the tube as to align the next compartment
with the entry hole (See Fig. 8).

8.1.2. Pill dispensing mechanism design Fig. 9. A view of the Pill chamber.
This module will take action each time a pill needs to be
dispensed as it will be the module in charge of making the pill
fall in the pill tray at the moment the Adriano sends the signal.
Module will need to be capable of selecting the correct
compartment from the different compartments of the pill
storage and it is vital it only gets one pill from the compart-
ment, as getting more than one pill could prove fatal.
The mechanism for the pill dispensing module will use two
Arduino-controlled servos, one of them located under the lid
and attached to the pill storage cylinder (same servo as the one
used in the pill refilling mechanism) and another one which
will control an intermediate piece Mechanism consists in three
different stages: default stage, pill load stage and pill release
stage. After the pill release stage the system will reset to the
default stage. The system goes through the three stages each
time a pill has to be dispensed to the user.
Parts involved in the dispensing mechanism.
Parts have been labelled 1 to 4 in the following diagrams
for an easier comprehension:

Part 1 e Pill storage.

Part 2 e Pill hatch.

Part 3 e Pill chamber.

Fig. 8. A view of the Pill storage. Fig. 10. Pillbox refilling mechanism.

Published by Arab Journals Platform, 2018

 Future Computing and Informatics Journal, Vol. 3 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 28

452 D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456

Part 4 e Pill pipe. The height also is the same as the model pill which will be
Part 1 Pill storage used in this pillbox, therefore this part can only hold one pill
standing in an upright position in its storage space (the storage
This part consists on a cylinder with hollow tunnels which space will be the side passage of the part, which will be also
cover the total length of the tube distributed radially along the addressed as the pill chamber from now on). Part may be
tube. On the center of the part there is a circular hole where viewed in Fig. 9.
different cables for circuits will pass when the pillbox is
assembled. This compartments will be the ones storing the 8.1.3. Pill box stage overview
pills until they need to be dispensed. Each compartment will The four parts will be presented in a minimalist way as seen
hold only pills of the same type, consequently there can be as in Fig. 10. During this explanation the location of the different
many pill types as usable compartments minus one. passages will be marked in red in each of the parts (these
passages will be the ones the pill has to traverse to get to the
Part 3 Pill chamber exit), as can be seen in Fig. 11.

The pill chamber consists on a cylinder with a circular hole Stage 1 default stage
at the center and another passage beside the hole. This passage
is wide enough to hold a pill in an upright vertical position. This stage is the stage where the pillbox is by default when
no pill needs dispensing, the starting position from where the
pill dispensing mechanism starts.
The pill compartments in the pill storage (part 1) are
positioned so that they are not aligned with the opening of the

Fig. 11. Pillbox refilling (pills in the cross-section). Fig. 12. Pillbox position of inner parts at default stage.

https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28
 Abdul Minaam and Abd-ELfattah: Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicin

D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456 453

pill hatch (part 2), therefore preventing any pills to exit the pill Stage 3 pill release stage
storage.
Pill chamber (part 3) has the chamber aligned with the pill When the pillbox reaches this stage the pill chamber (part
pipe (part 4), meaning it is not aligned with the opening in the 3) will move aligning itself with the pill pipe and therefore
pill hatch (part 2). Parts position in this stage is shown in letting the pill stored in the chamber fall through the pipe, this
Fig. 12. position is shown in Fig. 14. Pill storage (part 1) then rotates,
aligning the empty compartment of the pill storage with the
Stage 2 pill load stage hatch opening, preventing any other compartments to be
aligned over the hatch. Final position is then shown in Fig. 15.
In the pill loading stage both the pill storage (part 1) and the
pill chamber (part 3) align with the pill hatch (part 2). It has to 8.2. Parts overview
be noted that as the pill chamber (part 3) is aligned with the
hatch then it is not aligned with the pipe in the pill pipe part The pillbox consists on a total of 9 plastic 3D-printed parts
(part 4). This means the chamber is closed in its lower part which conform both the outer body as the inner mechanisms
(preventing any pills from falling below) and open in its upper of the pillbox. The plans for the different parts will be shown
part, which connects directly to the pill storage through the pill here in a reduced scale. The actual full-size plans with
hatch. This causes a pill to fall from the pill compartment to
the pill chamber, but, as there is only space for a pill in the pill
chamber, the pill itself will prevent any more pills to fall into
the pill chamber. The position of the different parts is shown in
Fig. 13.

Fig. 13. Pillbox position of inner parts at pill loading stage. Fig. 14. Pillbox position of inner parts at the first Step of the pill release stage.

Published by Arab Journals Platform, 2018

 Future Computing and Informatics Journal, Vol. 3 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 28

454 D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456

Fig. 17. Scaled plan for the pill chamber part.

Fig. 15. Pillbox position of inner parts at the last step of the pill release stage.

Fig. 18. Main screen of mobile application.

Then after connection between mobile application and

smart pill box, we click on the middle button “MEDICINES
“to write the medicines that the patient take.
After that we go to the last button “SET ALARM” to
set alarm on the time we need There are a lot of tunes and if
we forget to set the alarm and clicked go out the device gives
Fig. 16. Scaled plan for the lid part. us warning message like that.

10. Results
measurements of each one of the parts will be appended in the
annex. Final hardware is then shown in Figs. 16 and 17. A. Steps To Run The System

Power On The Device.
9. Implementation
Connect with the phone to the ESP AP

Open the mobile App through Roboremo.
A mobile application is developed to full control on smart
Modify the timing of each pill and enter it in it's
pillbox remotely using android application. At first when we opposed space.
open it we will see this.
Wait for every time of the pill, notification is poped.

https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28
 Abdul Minaam and Abd-ELfattah: Smart drugs:Improving healthcare using Smart Pill Box for Medicin

D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456 455

Fig. 19. Set configuration for medicine.

Fig. 21. The user interface.

Fig. 22. Required VS elapsed time.

Fig. 20. Setting alarm for medicine. 11. Conclusion

A canny pillbox is proposed and actualized this paper. It

B. Testing
illuminates the elders to take medication. It productively
controls the season of senior citizens to take medication. It
First, we tested the ESP connection to the remote app, it
additionally diminishes the proportion that patient misses and
was successful as we communicate with the app using certain
defers taking medication. The remote user interface joins with
string patterns or codes. Also tested the monitoring through
the RoboRemo software programming so that the parental
the serial monitor in order to check that there is no delay in the figures can help the patient. Which adds more functionality by
transmission or any lost characters, the same testing method applying more usability through networking locally or using
was applied to test the connection between the ESP and the
the internet if it is available. The outline design is too
Arduino NANO, the results showed the delay only was for a
appropriate for the medication bundles. Later on, we trust that
100 ms. That small delay didn't affect the timing of the doses
the vitality sparing and compact can be considered. In this
in any way noticeable, the graphs below and the interface
way, missing and deferring taking solution can be totally
shown below assures that (See Figs. 18e22).
eliminated.

Published by Arab Journals Platform, 2018

 Future Computing and Informatics Journal, Vol. 3 [2018], Iss. 2, Art. 28

456 D.S. Abdul Minaam, M. Abd-ELfattah / Future Computing and Informatics Journal 3 (2018) 443e456

References [16] Veacez PJ. An individual based framework for a study on medical error.
Int J Qual Health Care May 2006;18(4).
[17] Kuo GH-W. Research and implementation of intelligent MedicalBox.
[1] Sankar AP, Nevedal DC, Neufeld S, Luborsky MR. What is a missed
Kaohsiung, TW: Department of Electrical Engineering, I-Shou Univer-
dose? Implications for construct validity and patient adherence. AIDS
sity; 2009. M.S.thesis.
Care 2007;19(6):775e80.
[18] S.-C. Huang, H.-Y. Chang,Y.-C. Jhu and G.-Y. Chen, “The intelligent pill
[2] Sawand A, Djahel S, Zhang Z, Na F. Multidisciplinary approaches to
box-design and implementation,” in Proceedings of the IEEE interna-
achieving efficient and trustworthy eHealth monitoring systems. Com-
tional conference on consumer electronics, May 26-28, Taiwan.
mun. China (ICCC), 2014. IEEE/CIC Int. Conf.; 2014. p. 187e92.
[19] Hayes TL, Hunt JM, Adami A, Kaye JA. An electronic pillbox for
[3] Clifton D a, Wong D, Clifton L, Wilson S, Way R, Pullinger R, et al. A large-
continuous monitoring of medication adherence. In: Proceesings of the
scale clinical validation of an integrated monitoring system in the Emer-
28th IEEE EMBS annual international conference, Aug. 30-Sept. 3;
gency Department. IEEE J Biomed Heal Informatics 2013;17(4):835e42.
2006.
[4] Lisby M, Nielsen LP, Mainz J. Errors in the medication process: fre-
[20] Shinde Shashank, Kadaskar Tejas, Patil Pushpak, Barathe Rohit. A smart
quency, type, and potential clinical consequences. Int J Qual Health Care
pill box with remind and consumption using IOT. Int Res J Eng Technol
2005;17(1):15e22.
2017;4(12):152e4.
[5] Huang Shih-Chang, Chang Hong-Yi, Jhu Yu-Chen, Chen Guan-You. The
[21] Huang S, Chang H, Jhu Y, Chen G. The intelligent pill box - design and
intelligent pill box e design and implementation. ICCE-Taiwan; May
implementation. 2014. p. 235e6.
2014. p. 26e8. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCE-TW.2014.6904076.
[22] Lin F-T, Kuo Y-C, Hsieh J-C, Tsai H-Y, Liao Y-T, Lee HC. A self-
[6] Ray P. Home health hub internet of things (H 3 IoT): an architectural frame-
powering wireless environment monitoring system using soil energy.
work for monitoring health of elderly people. Sci Eng Manag Res 2014:3e5.
IEEE Sensor J 2015;15(c). 1e1.
[7] Ray Partha P. Home health hub internet of things (H3IoT): an architec-
[23] List C, Authors OF, Moga D, Stroia N, Petreus D, Moga R, et al. Work
tural framework for monitoring health of elderly people. In: The pro-
embedded platform for web-based monitoring and control of a smart
ceeding of 2014 international conference on science engineering and
home no. 53. 2015. p. 1e3.
management research; Nov. 2014. p. 27e9.
[24] Shinde Suraj, Bange Nitin, Kumbhar Monika, Patil Snehal. Smart
[8] Srinivas P, Lingaiah J, Satish babu P, Munteanu. Work Embed Platform
medication dispenser. Int J Adv Res Electron Commun Eng April 2017;
Web-based Monit Contr Smart Home May 2017;vol. 5(5):819e24.
6(4):200e4.
[9] Rosati RJ. Evaluation of remote monitoring in home health care. In: 2009
[25] Shah Viral, Shah Jigar, Singhal Nilesh, Shah Harsh, Uapdhyay Prashant.
international conference on eHealth, telemedicine, and social medicine;
Smart medicine box. Imper J Interdiscipl Res (IJIR) 2016;2(5):416e20.
2009. p. 25e7.
[26] Huang Shih-Chang, Chang Hong-Yi, Jhu Yu-Chen, Chen 1Guan-You.
[10] M3DITRACK3R. A design of an automated patient tracking and medi-
The intelligent pill box - design and implementation. ICCE-Taiwan;
cine DispensingMobile robot for senior citizens published in computer,
2014.
communications, and control technology (I4CT). 2014. International
[27] Geng Yang, Xie Li. A health-iot platform based on the integration of
Conference on Date 2-4 Sept. 2014 at Langkawi.
intelligent packaging, unobtrusive bio-sensor, and intelligent medicine
[11] A smartphone-enhanced pill-dispenser providing patient identification
box. IEEE Trans Ind Inf november 2014;10(4).
and intake recognition C. Crema, A. Depari, A. Flammini, M. Lavarini,
[28] Kulkarni Alok, Sathe Sampada. Healthcare applications of the Internet
E. Sisinni published in medical measurements and applications
of Things:A Review. Int J Comput Sci Inf Technol 2014;5(5):6229e32.
(MeMeA). 2015. IEEE International Symposium on Date 7-9 May 2015
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Computer Engi-
at Torino, Italy.
neering Pune University, Maharashtra, India, Alok Kulkar et al,/
[12] Kulkarni Alok, Sathe Sampada. Healthcare applications of the internet of
(IJCSIT).
things:A review. (IJCSIT) Int J Comput Sci Inf Technol 2014;5(No 5):
[29] Fang Kerry Y, Maeder Anthony J, Bjering Heidi. "Current trends in
6229e32.
electronic medication reminders for self care." the Promise of new
[13] Pang Z. Technologies and architectures of the internet-of- things (IoT)
technologies in an age of new health challenges: selected papers from 5th
for health and well-being. Ph.D. dissertation. Stockholm, Sweden: Dept.
global telehealth conference 2016, Auckland, New Zealand, 1-2
Electron.Syst., School Inf. Commun.Technol., Royal Inst. Technology
November 2016. 2016.
(KTH); 2013.
[30] Billingsley Luanne, Carruth Ann. Use of technology to promote effective
[14] MacLaughlin Eric J, et al. Assessing medication adherence in the elderly.
medication adherence. J Cont Educ Nurs 2015;46(8):340e2.
Drugs Aging 2005;22(3):231e55.
[31] Patel Samir, et al. Mobilizing your medications: an automated medica-
[15] Bai Ying-Wen, Kuo Ting-Hsuan. Medication adherence by using a
tion reminder application for mobile phones and hypertension medication
hybrid automatic reminder machine. In: Consumer electronics (ICCE),
adherence in a high-risk urban population. J Diabetes Sci Technol 2013;
2016 IEEE international conference on. IEEE; 2016.
7(3):630e9.

https://digitalcommons.aaru.edu.jo/fcij/vol3/iss2/28